As chief rabbi elections near, allegations against Metzger reflect rot in the Rabbinate
(...) The
Chief Rabbinate has its share of decent rabbis and employees, but it’s a
lawless, shameless system. That’s not just the view of the man in the
street; it’s been detailed in official reports by the state comptrollerand court documents in recent years: the appointment of cronies, the
collection of illegal fees and payments, the granting of unearned
rabbinical ordination certificates, the lack of rules and procedures.

Metzger
may continue to provide work for his lawyers through the end of his
term and beyond, but the problem isn’t just Metzger, or even the
corruption in the system. The problem is that this corrupt culture has
direct victims: Jews who live in Israel and need the rabbinate’s
services. And that is almost every Jew in the country − both those who
fly to Cyprus to get married and those who seek to marry in accordance
with religious law; anyone who wants to eat kosher food or be buried
when he dies; and especially the thousands of converts and the couples,
above all the women, who come before the rabbinical courts to seek a
divorce.

If
the rabbinate had clean hands, perhaps it would find time to tend to
the important goals for which it was established and take its
responsibilities seriously, toward Jews in Israel and also toward those
living overseas.

The upcoming election of the next chief rabbis − who will serve for a 10-year term − is a major drama in the religious world.
But this drama will be a missed opportunity as long as the debate
revolves solely around the question of who the next chief rabbis will be
rather than around the question of what the next Chief Rabbinate will
be.

The
biggest waste of opportunity, however, is the apathy of secular Jews
toward the rabbinate − the unwritten agreement under which secular
politicians let the religious do whatever they please with it and
thereby waive their ability to have an impact on Jewish life. That’s
precisely how Metzger managed to get elected last time around, with the
support of secular elected officials. Instead, this should be the moment
for all Israeli politicians, religious and secular alike, to join hands
and foment a revolution.

(...)Metzger’s arrest last week on accusations that he embezzled money
meant for nonprofits led the rabbi to suspend himself from his position
until the investigation is completed.

Following 10 hours of questioning on Thursday by police with the
National Fraud Unit, Metzger was placed under house arrest until
Tuesday, the date of his first court hearing. Three of his associates
also were brought in for questioning.

The scandal is the latest in a string of accusations against Metzger
and the most recent allegation of wrongdoing against Israel’s chief
rabbis.

In 2003, the year Metzger was elected to his 10-year term, he was
accused of sexual harassment. New sexual harassment allegations have
come to light in the days since his arrest.

Two years later, Metzger was investigated on charges that he received
preferential treatment at the David Citadel, a luxury hotel in
Jerusalem. Metzger maintained his innocence throughout the probe, which
was dropped in 2008 for lack of evidence.

Past chief rabbis also have weathered allegations of misconduct.

Yisrael Meir Lau, Metzger’s predecessor, also was accused of sexual
harassment. And Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi
from 1993 to 2003, is on trial for issuing fake rabbinic ordination
certificates to security guards so they could secure pay raises.

For many Israelis, such sordid tales are an unfortunate and all-too-familiar sideshow.(...)

Metzger suspected of defrauding charities of millions of shekels.

CHIEF RABBI Yona Metzger Photo: Bernadett Szabo/Reuters

Former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger was arrested Monday morning on
suspicion of receiving bribes and illicit payments, and taken to Rishon Lezion
Magistrate’s Court where a judge extended his remand in police custody for nine
days.

Speaking at the hearing, Judge Menahem Mizrahi said that “there is
reasonable suspicion that the offenses attributed to the suspect were indeed
committed [by him],” and added that releasing the rabbi could interfere with the
police investigation.

The police representative at the hearing for the
extended remand, Asaf Valfish of the Lahav 433 National Crime Unit and chief
investigator in the case stated that the investigation was creating a
“depressing picture,” according to which Metzger allegedly received bribes and
forbidden payments of an “unprecedented scope.”

Valfish said that the
amounts allegedly payed to Metzger added up to millions of shekels in cash
received by the rabbi over the last 10 years while he was serving as chief
rabbi, and also charged the rabbi with breach of public trust.

In the
formal police request for extending Metzger’s detention, Valfish wrote that
Metzger had been paid hundreds of thousands of shekels to act as an agent in
order to direct different parties, in Israel and abroad, to make charitable
payments to different organizations and philanthropic
groups.

Additionally, the rabbi is accused of taking millions of shekels
for “utilizing his authority as chief rabbi, in a variety of different
incidents.”

Further, Valfish wrote that Metzger had “worked to hide and
obscure his identity as someone who was receiving illegal payments, [and]
interfere with the investigation into the case...”

Metzger’s attorney,
David Libai, noted that he had not been permitted to see documentation from the
investigation and said that he was concerned that someone was seeking to slander
the rabbi, since “it is totally unrealistic that he received millions [of
shekels] in relation to his job.”

Libai also asked why, if the evidence
was so strong, the police were concerned that Metzger could interfere with the
investigation.

Speaking in court, Metzger said that the police arrived at
his home at seven in the morning, conducted a search and and took him to the
police station without prior notice.

“I was in their hands for seven
hours... and I was not asked one question which I had not been previously
asked.

They are chewing over the same material from every different
side,” he said.

“And the Jew who is standing with a kippa on his head
enters in the middle of the investigation and says, ‘You’re using your lack of
memory; we’ll put you in detention.’ So the detention is supposed to refresh my
memory?” Police raided Metzger’s home and offices back in June this year and
questioned him under caution for several hours.

The former chief rabbi,
along with three other men, are suspected of being involved in the alleged
financial crimes.

Former chief rabbi Rabbi Yona Metzger was arrested Monday morning on
suspicion he had received bribes and committed other crimes during the
period he had served as Ashkenazi chief rabbi. A gag order was lifted on
the case on Monday.

Metzger is suspected of bribery, money laundering, obstructing an investigation, fraud and other violations.

Police
suspect that Metzger had accepted bribes of money and goods from the
heads of various nonprofit associations in return for advancing their
interests. Police said the amounts involved totaled millions of shekels.

Israel's religious leadership under investigation

The
Israel Police National Fraud squad has been investigating Metzger for
several months. It was decided to take Metzger into custody because the
investigation has made significant progress, with strong evidence
available to back the allegations, police said. The police also suspect
that in recent months, Metzger had tried to suborn witnesses and
obstruct the investigation. Additional suspects have been detained for
questioning.

That
Metzger was under suspicion was made public in June on the approval of
the attorney general and the state prosecutor. Metzger was questioned
under caution at the time for 10 hours and was released to house arrest
for five days. Metzger, who at the time was in the final weeks of his
tenure as chief rabbi, suspended himself from several of his tasks.

Metzger
was elected chief rabbi in April 2003, and was also named a dayan
(rabbinic judge) on the Supreme Rabbinical Court. In 2005 he was
investigated on suspicion he had received tens of thousands of shekels
in benefits from Jerusalem hotels that accommodated him and his family
during the holidays, even though the state was renting him a luxury
apartment in the capital.

In
a detailed legal opinion, then-Attorney General Menahem Mazuz decided
that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to put Metzger on trial; however,
Mazuz called on Metzger to take responsibility for his actions and draw
the proper personal conclusions, and also recommended that he be removed
from his post. In February 2008, the Rabbinical Court Judge Selection
Committee decided not to remove Metzger.

Back
in 2003, there were reports that Metzger had allegedly sexually
harassed other men. Then-Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein decided not
to launch a criminal investigation. Two of the four men who had told
the Maariv newspaper that Metzger had harassed them took polygraph tests
and were found to be telling the truth. Metzger, however, presented his
own polygraph tests that showed he was telling the truth and that no
harassment had ever occurred.

A
series of documents published by Haaretz in 2003 described how the
Chief Rabbinate decided to ignore serious suspicions that had
accumulated against Metzger when the latter was a candidate for chief
rabbi of Tel Aviv in 1998, in exchange for him dropping out of the race.
Then Sephardic Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron was aware, in 1998, of
at least one complaint of sexual harassment against Metzger, but despite
this, he signed a document in which he committed to drop an
investigation of those suspicions.

Thus,
the various allegations of Metzger’s violation of halacha and the law
that remain open include: sexual harassment, forging signatures on
ketubot (marriage contracts), improper conduct toward couples seeking to
get married and their families, extortion and threats against Rabbi
Shlomo Dichovsky and more. According to the documents obtained 10 years
ago by Haaretz, Dichovsky had complained in 1998 that Metzger had tried
to extort and threaten him so that he should not compete against him for
the post of Ashkenazi chief rabbi in Tel Aviv.

Former chief rabbi Yona Metzger was arrested on Monday at the culmination of a long investigation into a litany of financial crimes involving millions of shekels.

Metzger
was brought before the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court and charged
with offenses that included fraud, bribery, money laundering, breach of
trust, obstruction of justice and tampering with witnesses. Police
maintained a partial gag order on some details of the case and although
initial news of an arrest broke Monday morning, it was only in the
afternoon that Metzger’s name was released.

The police said the investigation was carried
out over several months by its corruption and organized crime
department, known as Unit 433, and involved the tax authorities and the
Jerusalem district attorney.

The court granted a police request to remand Metzger in custody for 10 days.

According to the allegations, various
nonprofit organizations connected with the rabbi during his term in
office received millions of shekels in donations, some of which Metzger
allegedly siphoned off for his own personal use.

In addition, he is suspected of receiving bribes to sway his opinion on matters he attended to in his capacity as chief rabbi.

Police reportedly continued to monitor Metzger
following his initial house arrest earlier this year, during which time
he allegedly tried to obstruct the investigation against him and tamper
with witnesses.

Although the investigation was initially covert it became public in
June 2013 when Metzger, who was at the time still the Ashkenazi chief
rabbi of Israel, was placed under house arrest. While proclaiming his
innocence, Metzger, whose 10-year term as chief rabbi was months away
from its conclusion, chose to resign his position.

“If
you take the blame in this case, I will give you a great deal of money
as well as an apartment, just like Shula Zaken did for Ehud Olmert.”

These are the words haredi former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger allegedly said to an aide after police first arrested Metzger last June on fraud and corruption charges.

But what Metzger did not know is that his conversation with that aide was being recorded.

The
resulting recording is reportedly only part of the evidence police have
against Metzger, who reportedly stole millions of shekels while he was
chief rabbi. That aide is allegedly the state’s lead witness against
Metzger.

Metzger traveled to foreign countries in his official capacity as chief rabbi.

During those official trips Metzger fundraised for charities, some of which he controlled.

Metzger
allegedly took as much as 50% of the money he raised for those
charities as his personal commission and did not report that income to
tax authorities.

The prosecution reportedly has more than one
lead witness against Metzger and a large amount of evidence some aware
of the details of the investigation are calling “air tight.”

Metzger has a long string of alleged corruption and sexual harassment
allegations against him stretching back to the years before he was
elected chief rabbi in a backroom deal orchestrated by then
haredi-leader Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, who was fully aware of the
allegations against Metzger but backed him anyway.

Chief rabbi thanks Bush for 'war against Iraq'

Metzger chosen as one of 12 most influential religious figures in the world for a CBS documentary called In God's Name.

yona metzger hat 298 Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski [file]

During a short verbal exchange Wednesday at the
Ben-Gurion Airport Terminal, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger thanked
President George W. Bush for the US's military intervention in Iraq.
"I want to thank you for your support of Israel and in particular for
waging a war against Iraq," Metzger told Bush, according to the chief
rabbi's spokesman.
Bush reportedly answered that the chief rabbi's words "warmed his
heart."
Metzger's stand on the Iraqi war, while reflecting the Israeli majority
and Orthodox Jewry, is not shared with most US Jews. The American Jewish
Committee's annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion, published last
year, found that 70 percent of US Jews disapprove of the Iraq war, with
28% backing it.
In a related story, Metzger was chosen as one of the 12 most influential
religious figures in the world for a CBS documentary called In God's Name that appeared at the end of December.
Newsweek also devoted a story to the documentary complete with
pictures of Metzger and the other religious leaders.
Metzger was chosen along with figures such as the 14th Dalai Lama of
Tibet, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams and heads of the
Sikh and Muslim religions.

Stop and think for a moment:the last Gulf War in 1991 ended erev - just before - Purim. This Gulf War beganmotzei - just after - Shushan Purim. Get the picture? In between, "The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honor." (Book of Esther 8:16)

Of course this war against Iraq and Saddam Hussein is for us. Even
the anti-Semites, like Patrick J. Buchanan and Congressman Jim Moran
know it. (...)

However, we already knew that this war is for us - i.e., the Jews and Israel.
Chazal - our sages - throughout the ages have explained the Torah,
telling us that everything that happens in the world is for the benefit
of the Jewish People.

As I said earlier, of course this war is for the Jews and Israel, and
instead of hiding from the accusation, or crying, "anti-Semitic slur", we
should gratefully acknowledge what the Master of the Universe is doing
to our enemies for us. Saddam Hussein, Yasser Arafat, Bashar Assad,
Osama Bin-Laden, and the other dictators, terrorists and mullahs of the
region, are the modern day Hamans and Hitlers.(...)

Yes, the war is for the Jews.
But it is also for all decent, peace-loving and freedom-loving people.
Just as when the Jews were saved from Egyptian slavery, liberated, given
the Torah at Mt. Sinai, and brought into the Holy Land, the world now has a great opportunity to rid itself of the Hamans, Hitlers, and Pharaohs who want to kill or enslave them today. (read the rest...)

(...) Blu Greenberg, an Orthodox feminist leader based in New York, supports
the Bush administration’s campaign against Iraq as a “preventive war,”
much as the ancient Jews defended themselves against Haman’s plot to
destroy them.(...)

Rabbi Martin Weiner of San Francisco, outgoing president of the Reform
movement’s rabbinical union, the Central Conference of American Rabbis,
used Shabbat Zachor to draw a line from Amalek to Hitler to Saddam. A modern-day Amalek, Saddam has attacked four of his neighbors, gassed tens of thousands of his own people and pays stipends to suicide bombers, Weiner said, so “it’s terribly important to remove him.” Last September, Weiner was among those who backed a resolution from the Reform movement’s Union of American Hebrew Congregations urging a pre-emptive strike against Iraq,
if Congress supported it and U.N. backing was sought. But for Reform
Rabbi Don Rossoff, of Temple B’nai Or in Morristown, N.J., Amalek casts a
very different shadow. Rossoff said he has refrained from publicly
sermonizing this Purim about the war, which he opposes, because he is
“haunted by Baruch Goldstein, who called the Arabs Amalek.” Goldstein, a doctor in an Israeli settlement near the West Bank city of Hebron, shot to death 29 Palestinians praying in Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarch on Purim Day in 1994. Saddam is “a tyrannical, murderous dictator” who “ would probably wipe out Israel if he could,” Rossoff added. “But he’s not the only one around. His name just starts with ‘H,’ ” like Haman.(...)

The Montreal replacement mayor who recently took office amid a
corruption scandal, and who promised to restore public trust, has now
been arrested in a bribery case.
Mayor Michael Applebaum was picked
up at his home Monday by Quebec’s anti-corruption unit as part of a
broader investigation into construction deals involving Mafia-linked
figures and a public official who recently committed suicide.

Applebaum’s longtime friend and colleague, councillor Marvin
ROTRAND, said he was shocked and does not believe the allegations, even
if he realizes UPAC must have proof before bringing charges.

“He’s
an honest man for whom his first passion was to help his fellow
citizens, and since he became mayor his following has been
astronomical,” Rotrand said, noting that there were calls for him to run
for mayor, a request Applebaum repeatedly said couldn’t fulfill because
he had promised not to when he was elected interim mayor. Rotrand said
he received many calls from constituents, many of whom said they did not
believe the charges. Some suspected it was part of a plot against
Applebaum. Rotrand said it was up to the mayor whether or not to resign,
but intimated there was little choice.

MONTREAL – Michael Applebaum, the first Jewish mayor in the history
of Montreal, will be charged with 14 crimes stemming from real estate
deals that took place between 2006 and 2011 in the borough of Côte des
Neiges/Notre Dame de Grace.

Police arrested the mayor early Monday morning as part of an ongoing crusade against corruption in municipal politics.

Saulie Zajdel, another prominent Jewish politician, was also
arrested. Zajdel is a former city councillor who ran for the
Conservative Party in the Mount Royal riding in the last federal
election and came within a few thousand votes of upsetting Liberal
incumbent Irwin Cotler.

“Applebaum is facing 14 counts of conspiracy, fraud, breach of trust,
and corruption,” said Robert Lafreniere, the head of UPAC (Unité
permanente anticorruption).

Zajdel, who stepped down as a city councilor in 2009, is facing nine charges.

The alleged crimes involve real estate deals from 2006 to 2011. At
that time Applebaum was the borough mayor for Côte des Neiges/Notre Dame
de Grace. Applebaum was elected interim mayor of Montreal last November
after his predecessor Gérald Tremblay resigned due to corruption
scandals already engulfing City Hall.

Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum arrested by anti-corruption unitMichael Applebaum, Montreal’s first Jewish mayor, was arrested at his home recently by Quebec’s anti-corruption unit.
Two other people were arrested: Jean Yves Bisson and the Jew Saulie Zajdel.
Zajdel was a Montreal city councillor for 23 years, from 1986 to
2009. He also served as a director for the Jewish Rehabilitation
Hospital Foundation for more than four years.
Applebaum has strong ties
to the Jewish community and has been openly supportive of Israel. He
has told Canadian Jewish News that he was raised with values rooted in
Judaism.
Applebaum, who is also mayor of the Côte des
Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough, has spoken eloquently about the
Jewish state at the annual downtown Yom Ha’atzmaut rallies and has
regularly attended Canadian Jewish Public Affairs Committee events.
In 2006, Applebaum refused a request by the pro-Palestinian group
Tadamon for a minute of silence at a borough council meeting for a
Montreal family killed in Lebanon by Israeli shelling during the
conflict with Hezbollah.
In 2011, Applebaum, along with fellow councillor and co-religionist
Marvin Rotrand, spearheaded a petition to have a public place in
Montreal named in memory of the Jewish writer Mordecai Richler.

Montreal’s first Jewish mayor and a Jewish former alderman were arrested as part of a crackdown on corruption.Michael Applebaum, who was appointed mayor last November, was taken
into custody Monday morning by agents of the anti-corruption unit,
l’unite permanente anticorruption (UPAC). Also arrested was Saulie
Zajdel, an Orthodox Jewish former city council member who ran
unsuccessfully for a seat in Canada’s last federal election.
Charges are expected to be announced later Monday.
Zajdel was a Montreal city councilor from 1986 to 2009. He also
served as a director of the Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation
for more than four years.
Zajdel listed his current job as a municipal affairs consultant and real estate broker, according to his LinkedIn page.
Applebaum, 50, won a city council vote in November to serve as
interim mayor for only a year, with a promise not to run in the next
municipal election. He replaced the previous mayor, Gerald Tremblay, who
resigned in a corruption scandal that linked him to graft and organized
crime.
A third man, Jean Yves Brisson, also was arrested Monday. Police say
both he and Zajdel had previously worked in the local electoral district
of Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dâme-de-Grace, which Applebaum had represented
as either a councilor or mayor since 1994.
All three were being held Monday by Quebec Provincial Police.

TORONTO — Montreal’s mayor and a former city alderman, both Jews, were arrested as part of a crackdown on corruption.
Michael
Applebaum, who became the city’s first-ever Jewish mayor when he was
appointed to the post last November, was taken into custody Monday
morning by agents of the anti-corruption unit, UPAC. He was charged
with 14 offenses, including breach of trust, fraud, municipal
corruption, conspiracy and receiving secret commissions.
Also arrested was Saulie Zajdel, an ex-City Council member who ran unsuccessfully for a seat in Canada’s last federal election.
Applebaum, Zajdel and a third man arrested Monday, Jean Yves Brisson, were being held by Quebec Provincial Police.
Zajdel
is charged with five corruption-related offenses and Brisson with four
offenses related to the years-long investigation into corruption in and
around Montreal.
Applebaum, 50, won a City Council vote in
November to serve as interim mayor for one year, with a promise not to
run in the next municipal election. He replaced Gerald Tremblay, who
resigned in a corruption scandal that linked him to graft and organized
crime.
Zajdel was a Montreal city councillor from 1986 to 2009.
He also served as a director of the Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital
Foundation for more than four years.
According to his LinkedIn page, he is now a municipal affairs consultant and real estate broker.
Zajdel,
running for the Conservative Party in Montreal, lost in his bid for a
federal seat to Liberal Party lawmaker and human rights activist Irwin
Cotler, who also is Jewish.
According to police, Zajdel and
Brisson had worked in the local electoral district of
Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dâme-de-Grace, which Applebaum had represented as
either a councillor or mayor since 1994.

If he is elected mayor of Montreal, former federal Liberal Cabinet
Minister Denis Coderre will continue to speak out against acts of
intolerance at every opportunity.

“This is in my DNA,” Coderre told the Jewish Tribune in an exclusive
interview. “There is no room for intolerance in our society. I have
spoken against it during my 16 years in Parliament. People know what
kind of guy I am. My plan is to include as many members of cultural
communities in my party as possible.”

The charismatic Coderre is the early favourite to win the mayor’s
post. He is in the process of assembling his Équipe Denis Coderre
election team and expects to name a number of Jewish candidates to his
team.

Coderre has often been asked during the past seven years about his
participation in an August 2006 pro-Lebanese rally hijacked by Hezbollah
supporters in downtown Montreal during the Israeli war with Hezbollah
forces in Lebanon. He wishes to remind people that he took part to push
for peace and when he bluntly denounced the rocket attacks of both
Israel and Hezbollah he was greeted with sustained booing.

“I was the minister in the federal Liberal cabinet who classified
Hezbollah as an unwanted terrorist organization,” Coderre said. “Israel
has the right to defend itself. This I have always maintained. I have
travelled to Israel and enjoy a very close friendship with Jewish
Parliamentarian Irwin Cotler.

“I also might add that as the citizenship and immigration minister, I kicked Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel out of our country.”

Coderre also has the full support of prominent Montreal Jewish
communications guru Rick Leckner, who is managing the media relations
aspect of his campaign.

While Coderre, 49, is a strong federalist, he does not believe the
question of Quebec’s place in Canada belongs in the municipal election.
One of his campaign co-chairs, Pierre Belanger, is in fact a former
Parti Québecois cabinet minister. “I believe Quebec is a nation within
Canada,” he says. “But what we really need to do in Montreal is focus on
the economy.”

Coderre has made his mark in recent years via social media. He has
more than 108,000 followers on Twitter, something that will set himself
apart from his key opponents.

“Twitter is incredible,” said Coderre. “During the crisis in Haiti I
was quite involved. At one point I was contacted by some people in
distress. Phone lines were down. But via Twitter I was able to advise
the Red Cross and they saved these people’s lives.”

The election campaign for Coderre will be a digital one.

His website, equipedeniscoderre.com, is interactive and on the main
page he highlights his pledge to launch a smart city and have free wifi
throughout.

“I want to introduce new apps like one for potholes,” he said. “If
you spot a pothole, there can be an app to notify the city right away.”

Coderre also has interesting plan for the municipal courts.

“Why should someone drive so far to make a court date?” he asks. “I
can get a judge in a booth with a camera and sound system and one can
fight their ticket over the internet. I want to bring efficiency and
coherence to our citizens.”